Hines Ward
Hines Ward is well-known for winning two Super Bowls (Ward). He brought international attention to multiracial individuals and families when he announced his visit to Korea (Kim, Hyein), even playing a role in new legislation passing in favor of multicultural families. His family, with his African-American father and Korean mother faced a lot of discrimination, causing them to move to the US from Korea. His mom felt that he would have more opportunities in the US.
He was excluded from the Black and Korean communities for not being strictly one race, and developed a hatred against Koreans and their culture. However, Hines was able to find solace in football. Eventually, he won MVP of the Super Bowl, rising to fame. He utilized this influence to spread awareness of stigmas towards multicultural families and eventually founded the Helping Hands Foundation, which helps inner-city kids in PA and biracial Koreans in Korea improve literacy.
He has various accomplishments in his NFL career, including being the all-time team leader in receptions and receiving touchdowns and yards, and being a four-time Pro Bowler (Al-Jamie). Additionally, he was appointed by President Obama as a member of the Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Place of Birth: Seoul, South Korea
Nationality: American
Background of Parents: Father is African-American and mother is Korean
Languages Spoken: English (native), Korean (very basic)
Profession: NBC studio analyst, NFL wide receiver (retired)
Sentiment Data from Youtube
Racist Koreans 보노짓 외국인 - Hines Ward - Hapa Hero MVP Story HD - ESPN - Outside the Lines
Video Summary
Hines Ward shares his experience with growing up biracial in the U.S. and his journey with accepting his Korean heritage after being rejected by Korean society.
Note-worthy Timestamps 0:50 Announcer: "In Korea, children of mixed ethnicity have long been pariahs, shunned by mainstream society. As a result, biracial Koreans are usually poorer and less well-educated than pure-blooded Koreans. The women who bear these children are also subjected to harsh intolerance."
1:13 Hines: "When my mom walked out in Korea, people would call her names, spit on her. I mean that's how bad in Korea it is"
1:43 Advocate of multiracial individuals: "It goes back to Confucian times and then also the result of invasions of Japan when there were mixed blooded children, which they resented at the time. If you're not pure-blooded Korean, you face discrimination"
2:00 Announcer: "Before Ward turned two years old, his parents relocated to Georgia, in large part because his mother wanted to escape the prejudices in Korea"
2:30 Announcer: "Ward's parents divorced and Hines eventually fell out of touch with his father. Throughout his childhood, Wards found himself an outsider."
2:41 Hines Ward: "Going to school, Black kids teased me because I was Korean so it was hard to try to fit in with Black kids because they always made fun of my Korean side. Well, trying to hang out with the Korean kids, they always teased me because I was Black. Trying to hang out with white kids, they teased me because I was Black and Korean"
3:19 Hines Ward: "To hell with Korean people. They didn't accept me, they didn't accept my mom. I had that anger for the longest time."
3:46 Announcer: "During his 11 seasons with the Steelers, performance mattered more than ethnicity"
4:27 Announcer: "As a nation that had once ostracized them, now celebrated them"
5:43 Announcer: "He announced that he would create a foundation dedicated to the advancement of Koreans of mixed ethnicity"
6:54 Announcer: "Having now finally being embraced by Korean society, he now embraces his own Korean heritage"
Data Collection Parameters
Collected a sample of the most recent 65 comments and sorted them into the different categories shown below. Comments could fit into multiple categories. Due to the subjective nature of interpreting the comments there may be some discrepancy in the data. To see examples of comments that fit strictly into one category, view the excel sheet with extracted comments. They are labeled accordingly to match the graph above.
Data Analysis
The video demonstrates how racist, pure-blooded ideologies are detrimental to biracial individuals, and how this can affect people anywhere. While Hines Ward was in Korea, his mother experienced a lot of discrimination for being in an interracial relationship. While he was in the US, white, Black, and Korean kids alienated him, causing him to constantly feel like an outsider and eventually developming contentment towards Koreans. However, after winning MVP, he decided to visit again for the first time in a long time. He was warmly welcomed by the nation, supporting that success plays a significant role in one's acceptance in a community.
Based on the comments, it seems that Hines Ward is well-accepted by society now. I did not notice any comments bashing Hines Wards. The closest mentioned how they did not like how he resented his culture, but understand now. Most comments were either sympathetic to Hines or directed towards Korea/Asia and the racism that exists there. There were also a lot of comments related to mixed-raceness and also how people's opions of certain groups of people have changed. Overall, comments were in support of Hines Ward as a biracial Black-Korean and show that times have changed and people are more accepting of biracial individuals and despise the racism in Korea.